By Janice Wood
The chronic use of cocaine can lead to structural changes in the brain that make the user more susceptible to addiction. Researchers at the University of Buffalo and Mount Sinai School of Medicine found that chronic cocaine use reduces the expression of a protein known to regulate brain plasticity in mice, which drives structural changes in the brain, including creating greater sensitivity to the rewarding effects of the drug.

“We found that chronic cocaine exposure in mice led to a decrease in this protein’s signaling,” says David Dietz, Ph.D., assistant professor of pharmacology and toxicology in the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.  » More

Bonnie J. Nagel, Ph.D., nagelb@ohsu.edu; Megan Herting, B.S., hertingm@ohsu.edu
Researchers know that adolescents with a family history of alcoholism (FHP) are at risk for developing alcohol use disorders. Some studies have shown that, compared to their peers, FHP adolescents have deficits in behavioral inhibition. A study of the neural substrates of risk-taking in both FHP adolescents and their peers with a negative family history of alcoholism (FHN) has shown that FHP youth demonstrated atypical brain activity while completing the same task as the FHN youth.

Results will be published in the April 2012 issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research and are currently available at Early View.  » More

By Jason Mullins
Recent headlines concerning a federal raid at an area doctor’s office has prompted one area doctor and his patients to speak out in support of a controversial treatment option for people suffering from addiction to prescription pain medication.

Last week, agents from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services entered a doctor’s office in Gate City, Va., that prescribes Suboxone to treat patients who are addicted to opioid-based drugs, such as oxycodone and hydrocodone. The raid was part of a year-long investigation into the clinic.  » More

* Nearly 15,000 died in 2008 of painkiller overdoses
* Millions report non-medical use of painkillers
* Death rate highest among males, whites, middle-aged

By Alina Selyukh
Nov 1 (Reuters) - Nearly 15,000 Americans died from an overdose of prescription painkillers in 2008, a record rate that has outstripped fatalities from illegal drugs like cocaine and heroin combined, U.S. health officials said on Tuesday. » More

By Chris Brooker
Patients should be given a pain management plan when prescribed opioids, with a limited initial trial period of six weeks on the treatments, an NPS research project has recommended. In addition, a national real-time monitoring system was also called for.  » More

By Daniel Simmons-Ritchie, The World
Coos County's struggle with drugs is poised to get worse. Experts fear that heroin will soon replace meth as the scourge of the South Coast, bringing with it a new level of disease, dependency and desperation. Heroin-related arrests in the region jumped to 41 in the past year - five years ago, police arrested only two people for crimes linked to the drug. » More